In 1229, Queen Ermengarde, the widow of
William the Lion and
mother of Alexander
II, invited the Cistercians at
Melrose Abbey to set up a
daughter-house at Balmerino. She chose this location close to the North
Fife coast because of its benign
climate and perhaps because of its existing religious connections.

Night Stair

Chapter House Vaulting

Waste Not, Want
Not: Recycled Stonework

At the time the settlement here was known as Balmerinach, or
St Merinac's Place: named after one of the monks
who accompanied St Regulus (or St Rule) when he brought the bones of
St Andrew to Scotland many
centuries earlier. It is tempting to suggest that Balmerino Abbey may have been
founded on a site first chosen for a chapel as long as 800 years earlier by St
Merinac.

Alexander
II granted the abbey a founding charter in 1231, and on her death in 1233,
Queen Ermingarde was buried in front of the high altar, suggesting that by then
work had progressed reasonably well on the choir of the abbey church, usually
the first part of any abbey to be built.

Building work was still under way in 1286 and the abbey was
presumably completed at the end of the 1200s or early in the 1300s. In plan,
Balmerino Abbey was unusual (like its mother house,
Melrose Abbey) in having a
cloister to the north of the abbey church. It was more usual in Scotland's
northern latitudes to build the cloister on the south side, out of the shadow
of the church.

Cross on Site of High
Altar

The Cellar of the
Abbot's House

Queen
Ermengarde's Spanish Chestnut

Balmerino Abbey was attacked and burned by an English Army under
the Earl of Hertford in 1547, but swiftly repaired. More serious damage was
done by the Reformation's mobs in 1560
(see our Historical
Timeline). The usual pattern of rapid decline followed, and in 1605 the
estates were granted to Sir James Elphinstone, First Lord Balmerino.

Balmerino Abbey suffered more than most in the years following the
Reformation and not much
of it remains today. The main standing structures are the walls and vaulting of
the sacristy, chapter house and parlour, together with parts of the lower walls
of the north transept of the abbey church. The site of the altar and Queen
Ermengarde's (later desecrated) grave are marked by a large wooden cross.

Parts of the north wall of the nave of the abbey church still stand
to a few feet high, and on the far side of the site an ivy covered mound
complete with gloomy opening leading into a vaulted cellar is all that is left
of the abbot's house. Most of the abbey ruin is in a dangerous condition as
shown by the wooden props holding up various parts of the structure, and the
main part is fenced off for the safety of visitors. Work is under way to return
the sacristy to a safe condition.

What became of the structure of the rest of the abbey? You don't
have to look very far for clues. The window of a farm building overlooking the
chapter house incorporates a mix-and-match of stonework from the abbey: see
photo, right. None of it quite fits and the window is topped off with what
looks like it was originally a piscina, the basin for washing communion
vessels, probably originally located in a side wall of the choir near the
altar.

Not far from the site of the abbot's house is a vast and extremely
ancient Spanish Chestnut tree. This is traditionally believed to have been
planted by Queen Ermengarde in 1229 to mark the foundation of the abbey. A
nearby sign says that analysis by the National Trust for Scotland suggests that
the tree is at most 500 years old. But why let the absence of a few tree rings
get in the way of a wonderful story? And if nothing else, it's nice to think
that this magnificent tree was very probably standing here when the abbey was a
thriving concern and well before the English Army or the
Reformation got to it.